Thursday, October 27, 2011

Autumn Smells Good

It's my favorite time of year. Autumn brings all my favorite stuff. The weather is finally cooler after all that summer heat. (Checking black roofs on the top of prisons in 113 degree heat does not rock.) The leaves start changing colors. Holidays are coming. Halloween is so fun. There is a lot of candy. There are all of my cool decorations. The kids get awesome costumes. Then comes Thanksgiving. That's my favorite part. I love me some Thanksgiving dinner. Actually, I love all the fall foods.

We have been making all kinds of autumn foods. We baked banana bread and pumpkin bread. We baked some regular bread. We made potato cheese soup and vegetable beef stew. We baked cake and cupcakes. But one of our favorites this fall is bread pudding. The girls just can't get enough of it. And it is so yummy and so simple.

When my grandpa was little his dad worked in a grocery store and his uncle had a farm nearby. They didn't have a lot of money, but they always plenty of eggs, milk and bread. So bread pudding was one of his favorite treats.

You can make bread pudding with any bread. I really mean any bread. I made it earlier this week with leftover hot dog buns, see picture. With some eggs, milk, sugar, and cream and you can be enjoying this yummy treat. The kids like it with maple syrup. And since it is bread with milk and eggs and you can put maple syrup on it... They eat the left overs for breakfast.

Jennifer's Bread Pudding

Ingredients

2 Cups of Milk
¾ Cup of Cream
4 Eggs
½ Cup of Sugar (Plus some extra to sprinkle on top.)
1/3 Cup of Nut Flavored Liqueur (I used Di Saronno. But if we are all out, I just leave it out and it still tastes yummy.)
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
½ Teaspoon of Salt
2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
7 ½ Cups of Diced Bread (Any bread will do. But if your use cinnamon bread leave out the cinnamon.

(I like mine plain, but you could add nuts or raisins or any other dried fruit mixed in.)

Directions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together everything but the bread. Then pour it over the bread. Let it soak for 15 minutes.

Spoon it into 6 ramekins. Sprinkle the tops with sugar. Place the ramekins into a large roaster and pour hot water into the roaster, filling the roaster with water half way up the sides of the ramekins. Be careful not to spill water into the puddings. Place the roaster in the over and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Take out of the water to cool. Let cool at least 30 minutes. We like to eat them with maple syrup.